The background of our thesis is the fact that properties and their related industry have a big negative impact on our environment. Since the real estate business is an important part of how the society is constructed, environmental solutions and sustainable real estate development can contribute to positive climate changes globally. The last decades have shown an increasing number of green properties, however the proliferation on the Swedish market is still slow. Existing research describes different benefits and motivators that should encourage investments in environmentally certified properties among real estate companies. Benefits that are established are for example lower energy- and maintenance costs, lower vacancy rate, an improved company image and increasing market value. We believe there is a gap of information considering how the real estate companies experience that these benefits are generated from a green building, as well as how motivators have impacted on the companies’ investment decisions. The purpose of this thesis is therefore to explain how different motivators affect real estate companies to invest in environmentally certified properties. To answer the purpose of our thesis, we have created four different hypotheses based on existing research which includes an improved result, increased economic profitability, improved company image and the opportunity of incentive programs and economic contributions. The hypotheses of our study have been tested with a quantitative method, through a survey. Collected data from our study has been analysed through a multiple regression analysis, where the four motivators have been analysed against the real estate companies share of investment decisions in environmentally certified properties. The conclusion of this thesis is that none of the hypotheses reached statistical significance and therefore the collected data cannot prove any relations between the motivators and companies’ investment decisions. Although, through our study, we have been able to identify both differences and similarities between theoretical claims and the result from our study. Even though statistical relations cannot be confirmed, the survey has collected descriptive data which contributes to a general view of how Swedish real estate companies today evaluate environmentally certified properties and how they are motivated to invest in these properties.

Master Thesis in Marketing,SchoolofBusinessandEconomicsat Linnaeus University, spring 2012 Authors: Sophie Lindgren and Amanda Tuvhag Title: Corporate Social Responsibility – A successful business strategy or just a trend? Purpose: First of all, this thesis wants to describe managers’ expectations regarding customers’ perception about their retail stores CSR initiatives and furthermore their implemented CSR initiatives. Secondly, to describe customer awareness and engagement towards retail stores CSR initiatives. Finally, to compare the results from retail store and customers, in purpose to identify possible gaps between these two. Research questions:RQ1: What expectations regarding customers’ perception of retail stores CSR initiatives do manager of such stores have and how do they perform CSR activities? RQ2:    How aware are customer regarding retail stores CSR initiative and what level of engagement do customer have concerning retail stores CSR activities? Method:    The empirical material is based on both a quantitative and a qualitative investigation. The quantitative investigation is the main study and contains of a customer survey whereby the collected sample consist of 150 respondents. A pilot study have been conducted in order to improve the intension of the survey. Further, the qualitative investigation contains five in-depth semi-strucutred interviews with local store managers of the selected retail stores. Conclusion: Customer thinks retail stores CSR initiatives are important, but they seldom support them. Retail store expect customers to value CSR products/action low in relation to other factors, but retail store are engaging themselves in several CSR actions. Keywords:    Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), marketing strategy, business ethics, sustainability, reputation, food industry, retailers, gap-model, perception, customer, retail store industry, expectation, environmentally certified, ecological products, fair trade.